Technical-level talks between the United States and Iran are to begin immediately following a first round of negotiations between senior officials in Switzerland, mediators Qatar and Pakistan said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n
The talks are aimed at reaching a “final deal” within 60 days, in line with the memorandum of understanding announced earlier, the statement released early on Monday said.<\/p>\n
Working groups are to be established to address Iran’s nuclear programme and Western sanctions, among other issues.<\/p>\n
The talks took place in a “positive and constructive atmosphere,” the mediators said, adding that “encouraging progress” had been achieved, including the creation of a “mechanism for further technical talks.”<\/p>\n
The mediators also said a communication channel had been set up between the parties to prevent misunderstandings or incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and ensure safe passage for ships through the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n
The statement also said a “de-confliction cell” had been created to help ensure compliance with the ceasefire in Lebanon, where there have repeatedly been attacks between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia.<\/p>\n
Technical discussions on implementing the agreements are expected to continue throughout the week at the B\u00fcrgenstock resort near Lucerne, the statement said.<\/p>\n
Iran says ‘major progress’ made on Lebanon<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that there had been “major progress” in efforts to end the war in Lebanon. He said the Lebanon de-confliction cell would be the first “real test” of the agreements.<\/p>\n
“Oil and petrochem exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction & development plan launched for Iran,” Araghchi wrote.<\/p>\n
His claims could not initially be independently verified. The US side did not immediately comment on the outcome of the first day of talks.<\/p>\n
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani posted a photo early on Monday on X showing him with US Vice President JD Vance and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
“Live from Lucerne, work continues,” he wrote. In the photo, Vance appears to be typing on a laptop.<\/p>\n
Direct talks between the negotiators<\/p>\n
The first direct meeting between the delegations in Switzerland lasted around an hour on Sunday afternoon, according to reports.<\/p>\n
The US delegation was led by Vance, who had earlier indicated that he expected to return to the US on Monday.<\/p>\n
On the Iranian side, Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were among those taking part as negotiators.<\/p>\n
The US and Israel began the war with Iran in late February. A ceasefire came into force in early April, though it has been breached sporadically.<\/p>\n
Last week, the US and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding aimed at achieving a comprehensive agreement to end the war within 60 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Technical-level talks between the United States and Iran are to begin immediately following a first round of negotiations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[45262,3188,45126,17,44596],"class_list":["post-89408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-international-conference","tag-iran","tag-iran39s-nuclear-programme","tag-switzerland","tag-technical-talks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116791821108505477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}